Working On Rather than In Your Business

If you want to improve and grow your business read on. If not, then we understand. You have far too much to do and no one suitably qualified to take the workload from you.

The day-to-day reality for most people running small businesses is that they spend most of their time working in the business rather than on the business.

But what has all this got to do with the comedian Harry Hill?

You’ve got to have a system!

Harry Hill’s favourite catchphrase is “you’ve got to have a system”. For Harry, this is just one line in his show. For Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds it was the mantra that led him to build the most successful franchise operation ever.

Now some people that hate McDonalds might disagree with the above. But even if you don’t like their burgers, go into one of their outlets and watch their operation for a while. Running a fast-food outlet is not a straightforward business. There are hundreds of key processes that if they go wrong would result in an unhappy customer.

Yet the operations are run so seamlessly that time after time customers get the product they expect and all from a group of employees who often have only been out of school for a couple of years. What’s more, the owner of the business is nowhere to be seen.

How did it come to this?

When you started your business, the service you provided was fantastic. You had enough hours in the day to ensure all customers were dealt with personally. You built a reputation and new customers flocked to you.

What now? Ever since you started to take on staff, things have never been as good. Service standards have slipped and now you are not sure if you are any better than the competitors you took business from all those years ago. Your business has reached a plateau.

You can’t expect your staff to know what is excellent. They will all have different opinions. You have to define excellence and set out how it is achieved time after time. The only way is for you to step back from the day-to-day grind and make the changes that will allow it to move on.

It’s time to stop working in the business and start working on the business. As Harry and Ray would say “You’ve got to have a system”.